If we always thought that in order to eat a good steak or meat you have to slaughter a cow, then think again. A groundbreaking new study has shown that it is possible to grow 100% edible meat in a laboratory. It became clear to them that it is possible to take only one cell from a cow, and make a steak from it – and that without killing the cow at all.

Sounds imaginative and futuristic to you? Definately not. According to professors in the stem cell and tissue engineering laboratory at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, the future is already here, and in the coming years the cultured meat will be sold in stores – but it will still be in limited quantity.

The process does begin by taking cells from the cow, called “stem cells”. Stem cells are cells that are not sorted into a particular tissue type, which means that they are able to develop and become many different cell types (for example a brain cell or a muscle cell, or any other cell) in a process called “differentiation”. In the laboratory where the cultured meat is produced, the stem cells differentiate into muscle cells and fat cells, from which the steak is made, which has a look and texture similar to the steak we all know.

Flavor, taste, and smell

The first product they developed was a thin steak from cultured beef, and now they are working on developing technology to produce thicker steaks that are also grilled (meaning when the fat is spread throughout the piece of meat, a look that resembles marble is obtained).

The thickness of the cultured steak they have now developed is half a centimeter, and their intention is to reach a cultured steak that is a centimeter thick. The professors aim for the cultured steak to have a similar taste and texture to the original, but in the laboratory they noted that there will not necessarily be a 100 percent match, because this is a tissue (cell tissue is a collection of cells and intercellular substances) that is created by cells, and is a different product from the tissue inside the cow.

The cultured tissue has unique properties and nutritional values with their own advantages. The professors in the laboratory say that they can, for example, determine what the ratio will be between the amount of fat tissue and the amount of muscle tissue, decide what the fatty acid composition will be and even what the percentage of protein in the cultured steak will be! That is, they can decide how much red (muscle) and how much white (fat) will be in the steak.

Get into the lab

In the lab the stem cells are in flasks (closed containers used in the laboratory) or in plates, which are the growth vessels of the cells. In the flasks there is a red liquid in which the cells grow. The red liquid consists of water and contains nutrients for the cells. The nutrients include: amino acids (which are the building blocks of proteins), fatty acids (fats) and glucose – a monosaccharide (carbohydrates).

The professor explained that they allow the basic food components to be adapted so that they choose to grow and reproduce, and she added that the growth vessels can themselves part of the vitamins and minerals!

The red color can tell what the acidity level of the growth fluid is. This is how you can tell if the liquid is acidic or basic. The acidity level (a good pH for growth is a neutral level, which is marked with 7, and in this situation the color of the liquid will be red. If the color of the liquid has changed to yellow, it means that the liquid has become acidic, and if the color of the liquid has changed to purple, it means that the liquid has become alkaline. Therefore, you should always make sure that the color will be red.

In the flasks you can see how the appropriate ones behave. The cells replicate within 18-24 hours. In the appropriate flasks they also differentiate: each cell differentiates into the function designated by the scientist.

How do you create muscle and fat cells?

In order to create muscle cells or fat cells, you need to use proteins and special growth factors, for example, you need to give the stem cells proteins that are used as growth and differentiation factors that are suitable for creating muscle cells, and to create fat cells you need to give other growth and differentiation factors that are suitable for their creation.

The flasks with the cells are inside incubators. An incubator is a device in which scientists can determine the best conditions for cell growth. The temperature in the incubator is 37 degrees Celsius, like the body temperature of a cow. The air in the incubator is sterile (without bacteria), and there is control over the percentage of humidity, the amount of oxygen and the amount of nitrogen in the incubator.

The cells that are in the incubator are microscopic cells that can only be seen through a microscope. In the microscope you can see whether the cells are growing, whether they are differentiating, whether their shape is normal, whether they have developed muscle fibers and more.

When the flasks are removed from the incubator, the cells stop growing, because in order to grow they need the pampering conditions that exist in the incubator.

Bioprinting

After the incubator scientist transfer the cells into the 3D bioprinter the ink in the printer is not dye ink, but biological ink, and it also contains soy protein or pea protein. with the help of the biological ink, it is possible to print and create thicker tissues.

To grow a cultured steak you need to grow cells on a scaffold. A scaffold is a supporting structure that gives tissue its structure. The scaffold can be made from vegetable protein, for example from soy. When there is no scaffolding, the resulting meat resembles ground meat, which is fine if you want to make ground meat, but their goal is to make a steak.

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